Three years later John Carter and Kerry Weaver were happily married, Henry was almost four years old and about two years earlier they had adopted a daughter that they named Hope. Hope had been abandoned when she was three and she hadn’t spoken a word since then. She wasn’t mute or deaf but once Kerry was informed that she had seen both of her parents brutally murdered she decided to let Hope talk on her own time, when she was ready. Hope was seven years old now her hair was long and black she didn’t let anyone touch it except for Weaver who would periodically put it up for her because she wouldn’t let anyone come near her with scissors to cut it. Even though she didn’t talk she got along very well with Henry and they would play with each other for hours, and after a while she noticed that Hope had started to smile when she played with him.

The incident with Romano and Corday was never discussed unless it was just between her and John at home when the kids were asleep. They had decided to let it all pass and after a year they didn’t hear anything from Romano so they decided that things were going to be okay. The family lived on John’s estate, Hope wasn’t in school yet, but she did use sign language and both Kerry and John were looking into a special school for her. She had terrible separation anxiety, so when they both had to go to work they took her with them, she would sit in the lounge and draw pictures. It was okay if they weren’t in the lounge all the time with her, she just wanted to know they were around and hear their voices. Henry however was in preschool which took a lot of stress off of both of them during the day because they had somewhere to put him.

Weaver entered the lounge to have lunch with her daughter like she did every day, she sat down next to Hope who was coloring in a picture of a bunny rabbit, she had chose to color it purple. Weaver took out both of their lunches and set Hope’s down in front of hers.

“Hey there…” She smiled at her daughter and then looked at her picture, “That’s a pretty drawing.”

“Mommy, who’s Romano?” Hope suddenly asked speaking for the first time since Weaver had met her. Weaver was surprised to hear her talk, and she was surprised to hear that name again, but she knew that she shouldn’t act shocked that Hope was talking or else it might encourage her to talk even less.

“Well, he’s a very bad man who won’t be coming back any time soon.” Weaver replied after a moment wondering where she heard the name in the first place. Hope dropped her crayon and picked up her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and took a bite.

“Dr. Luka said that he was going to come and get you.” She replied, Kerry paused wondering just how stupid the staff was to talk about her problems in front of her daughter, it wasn’t like she couldn’t hear or communicate with her parents. Hope called all the staff by their first names when she signed, she just always added doctor in front of it thinking that’s what she was supposed to do.

“Dr. Luka is wrong…” She put her hand on Hope’s, “Romano is not coming to get me or you…or Daddy…or Henry…okay?” Hope took another bite of her sandwich and reached for her juice box, Weaver handed it to her wondering why Luka would even bring that subject up again after three years.

“Okay Mommy.” Hope replied and then she smiled at her, “You are surprised that I am talking?”

“A little but…it’s okay I knew you would when you felt comfortable.” Weaver reassured her and then took a bite of her salad, “It’s nice to hear you talk you have a pretty voice.” Hope smiled at her a little and then blushed slightly. “And you don’t have to call me Mommy…”

“It’s okay…you are my mommy now.” She then picked up her crayon and started to color again, as Weaver felt tears prick her eyes as sheer happiness flowed through her body. She had felt the same way when Henry first called her mommy, it had to be the most wonderful feeling in the world.

That night after Henry had gone to bed, Hope crawled up onto the couch with Carter and Weaver and snuggled between them. Kerry hadn’t told Carter about Hope talking yet because she thought it was best for the girl to reveal that to him when she felt comfortable.

“I think it’s some one’s bed time…” Carter said with a smile although he had absolutely no intention of taking her to bed, he spoiled her just like he spoiled Henry. He loved spending time with the both of them and he hated being the bad guy when it came to bed time or eating the right foods so he usually left that hard stuff up to Kerry. She wasn’t mean about it and he was sure the kids didn’t see her as a bad guy, she had such a good way with children and she was able to explain to them very calmly why they should do things so it worked out for the best.

“I wanna stay here with you and mommy.” Hope replied as she curled up on his lap, they were watching an old movie it was in black and white, he was surprised that she actually wanted to stay to watch it, and he was even more surprised that she just spoke. He looked over to Kerry as if to ask her if she had heard what Hope had just said and she smiled back and nodded at him. He smiled back at her and looked down at Hope and touched her hair softly. The name she was born with was Mary, it said that on her birth certificate but while shuffling from foster home to foster home the social workers started to call her Hope thinking that it might help her in the long run and the name just stuck. She didn’t seem to mind being called Hope, she was a very easy going child and almost never complained or argued with either of them.

“Okay you can stay here for five more minutes.” He replied and then pulled a blanket over her, she sighed softly and smiled letting her eyes slowly drift shut as she watched the movie drone on in front of her. When she was asleep Carter reached his hand over to Kerry’s and took it gently. “She’s talking.” He whispered so he wouldn’t wake her up and Weaver nodded but then her expression turned serious.

“She asked me about Romano today…she said that she heard Luka say something about him coming to get us.” Weaver whispered back not wanting to startle Hope awake either. Carter made a face that showed he was just as confused as she probably was when she heard about Romano in the first place.

“Well you know how the staff talks about Romano taking his revenge on you from beyond the grave…they don’t know he’s still alive and neither does she. She’s just a little kid, she probably took it all out of context.” Carter replied and then he glanced down at his daughter who was still curled up asleep in his lap and he smiled slightly.

“Yeah…let’s just hope it stays that way…you know he still has that tape John.”

“Yeah and it’s been three years…He’s probably forgotten all about it and started a new life with Elizabeth and Ella…he might not be as vengeful as you think.” Carter said looking back at her, he leaned in and kissed her forehead gently. “He finally found love and maybe that’s what’s keeping him from taking even more revenge.”

“I hope you’re right John…” She leaned in and kissed him softly, “I sincerely hope you are right.”

* * *

That night Kerry couldn’t sleep, all she could think about was Romano, so she climbed out of bed and headed down to the kitchen to get something to drink hoping that she might feel tired again. While she was sitting at the table looking over a magazine she heard a loud crash in the other room, it sounded like glass was shattering. She got up quickly thinking that maybe one of the dogs had knocked something over, she hoped the noise didn’t wake anyone else in the house. She walked into the living room but before she could turn the light on something hit her in the back of the head and she fell.

When she woke up she was laying on the couch bound and gagged, there were a few candles lit and immediately in front of her she could see Elizabeth Corday’s face bathed in the soft light. She groaned only to realize that she had a gag in her mouth and she tried to sit up but her head was throbbing too much. That’s when Romano walked over to the couch and sat down by her feet.

“Kerry, Kerry, Kerry…” He said in a voice that sounded like he was about to scold her, “You never rededicated the clinic, in fact you never transferred any of my funds did you?” He didn’t look happy and Weaver thought he would never find out about that, after she had made the statement to the press she had forgotten all about the rededication but why did he wait this long to say anything about it.

“Get the hell out of my house!” She screamed into the gag, and although it didn’t come out exactly how she wanted she was pretty sure he understood what she was trying to say. He shook his head and stood up and looked over to Corday for a moment before taking in a deep breath and letting it out as a sigh. He leaned over and pulled the gag out of her mouth.

“If you scream for help I’ll hurt you…and your precious little daughter.” Romano threatened and Kerry swallowed hard as she forced herself not to cry out for Carter. “Hope knows me all to well, I was the one who killed her parents.”

“You what?”

“It all comes full circle now doesn’t it?” Corday interjected with quite an evil smile on her face Kerry blinked a few times not sure she actually believed what she was hearing. “We knew you would adopt her and take her under your wing…we knew all along.”

“But why?”

“Because it gives me leverage in this situation…think about it Kerry, if she knows that I am here talking to you she will get scared and most likely learn not to trust you any more.” Romano replied as he sat back down on the couch near Kerry’s feet. She clenched her teeth and growled slightly, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing and if she screamed for help now it would only make things worse, she didn’t know that Romano could be so evil.

“Now that the explanation is out of the way, we came here to inform you that we will be playing the tape of Carter and you over a pirate broadcast this morning.” Corday informed her leaning slightly forward resting her elbows on the arm of the couch. She kissed Romano on the cheek softly before walking around to the other side and lacing her fingers into Weaver’s hair, “Isn’t this going to be so much fun?”

“Get away from me!” Weaver screamed, “SOMEBODY HELP ME!” She screamed as loud as she could, but her cries for help only caused another blow to the head and she blacked out once more.

* * *

“How is she?” Carter asked looking into the room where Weaver had been kept for the past few weeks, after Sandy had been killed in a massive fire and she had lost custody of Henry, Kerry had completely lost her mind. The day after Henry’s custody trial Weaver had gone home and swallowed a bottle vicodin with half a glass of Vodka. The physical damage was nothing compared to the emotional strain she had been put under the past month. The doctors were expecting her to recover but as of now she was still in her own little world. Carter was the only one she would talk to with out becoming violent, and he made a point to visit her at least twice a day for no little then an hour each time.

“She’s making a little progress but she still goes into those phases where she hallucinates.” Dr. Amber McKay informed him, she was newly appointed chief of the psych ward. She had never met Kerry before she had snapped so she really didn’t know what progress was in that case. She just assumed that progress would mean Kerry being able to separate reality from fiction and for the most part she could do that but her night terrors and hallucinations almost governed all of her waking hours. Carter nodded and stepped into Kerry’s room, she was laying on the bed facing away from him, after two weeks they had moved her from a padded room to a nice one that had a great view of the city from a barred window.

“Kerry?” Carter said softly after he locked the door behind him, “Are you awake?”

“John?” She rolled over and looked at him, for the first time in a long time her eyes weren’t distant and her voice was clear, “Oh thank god you are here.” She sat up slowly, she could move around the small room by herself but they had taken away her cane when she started to use it as a weapon. He walked over to her and hugged her gently, feeling so relieved that she seemed to be back to her normal self.

“How is everything?” He pulled back and looked at her, they had never been more then friends but in a world that Kerry had created due to stress they apparently were married and had two children. He knew that he shouldn’t feed into her fantasy by acting that he was her husband but he did love her and he wasn’t sure when the right time to reveal that was/

“The food here sucks.” She laughed a little and looked down at the plastic bracelet that was attached around her wrist, “Other then that it’s okay.” She nodded slightly and Carter looked over to the TV that was in her room, it was on but the sound was muted and she was watching the news.

“What about the dreams?”

“Oh they are getting less and less frequent…” She smiled again, “Romano is dead…Henry is gone and I’m slowly starting to accept that.”

“Good…that’s a great start.” Carter replied and took a seat next to her on the bed, “They are talking about letting me take you out of here for short periods of time to see how you do.”

“Really? God would I love to get out of this place even if it was only for fifteen minutes.” She looked out of the window and sighed softly, “I miss work…I miss my house…and I miss you Carter.” She whispered and turned to look at him, she put her hand on his suddenly feeling incredibly stupid because she knew that he knew about her little fantasy world where they were married. He didn’t really mind that she had created a world where they were married he just wished it was true.

“So…what have the dreams been about lately?”

“Oh you know the normal stuff…Corday being evil, and Romano trying to black mail me.” She sighed and moved back on the bed and pulled her knees up to her chest, unlike the other patients in the ward she was allowed to wear scrubs instead of just a gown which she was thankful for. They had also taken her off of suicide watch soon after Carter was allowed to visit her, it seemed like he was a major part of her recovery.

“Well he is dead…and you know as well as I do that Corday moved back to England.” He turned to look at her and she tilted her head back against the wall and smiled again.

“Good…I don’t think I could face her again after everything I did…” She sighed only remembering tiny bits of the time where she had attacked Corday after waking up in the recovery room. She felt terrible about that now, but at the time she couldn’t separate the Corday in her dreams from the woman who worked in the ER. She ended up breaking Elizabeth’s nose and splitting her lip pretty bad, and she vaguely remembered screaming something about Romano but that was it, she didn’t need to remember any more and she didn’t want to.

“Well, if you took your meds today then we can get out of here for a little I was thinking of buying you dinner.” He said casually even though he was nervous as hell asking her out like that. He wondered if she knew that he was nervous about this, he hoped that he didn’t appear to be worried, he wasn’t afraid that she would get out of control or be too much to handle he was afraid he would make an ass out of himself during the meal. She nodded at him and he helped her into the hall where her crutch was finally given back to her and finally she felt a sense of freedom. As they walked out to Carter’s car they talked about the current gossip that was going around in the ER. Weaver used to hate all that gossip but now it seemed like the only thing connecting her to the real world.

From a distance in a black BMW, sat Romano and Corday and he watched them through a pair of high definition binoculars. Over the past month, after Corday had been attacked and Romano had heard about it he had rushed to her side. Their love quickly blossomed as did their hate for Kerry Weaver and John Carter. Over the last month Corday had been obtaining files on Weaver under an assumed name as she pretended to date Dr. Amber McKay. Amber wasn’t giving her the records, Amber wasn’t that stupid, but because they were dating Corday had access to things she normally wouldn’t have. Romano and Lizzie watched Carter’s car pull out of the back parking lot and a moment later he was right on their trail.

End Part IV